Page 32 of Lessons in Love
Lifting up on her elbows, she looks confused. “Like what?”
“This.” I wave my hand over her body. “No way you’re still a virgin.”
She laughs, and relaxes back, resting her hands behind her head. “I told you I’ve made out before. I’m not new to all of it. Just the final deed. But I’m out of practice. I haven’t had a boyfriend since college. I’ve had dates, dates that were duds. I don’t want dud dates. I want Lowry.”All of me, everything from my lungs to my heart deflate under the mention ofhisname. Asshole. “What makes him so special? Trust me, V. You can get any guy you want. Why waste your energy and your virginity on him?”
“Because I can’t get him.”
“So it’s a challenge, an ego thing?”
“No, not at all. I just want to be one of those girls that Lowry Renquist would be interested in.” She sits up, her feet landing back on the floor. “Anyway, he might not be getting my virginity.” She turns to me, a glimmer of hope reflecting in her eyes. “I was hoping that would be the final lesson with you.”
“C’mere.” She moves over and rests her head on my shoulder when I drape my arm around her. “I thought I was teaching you to get his attention.”
Fingertips fidget with a button on my shirt before slipping just inside and scraping lightly with her nails. Big Richard reacts.Naturally.I take hold of her hand, stilling it. She looks up at me. “The women he dates are not virgins who fumble around the bedroom. They know how to please him.” Her eyes lower, her gaze fixating on that button again. “I want to know how to please him.”
I release her hand and lift her chin. When I see the sadness in her eyes, I say, “He doesn’t deserve you. You know that, right?”
“I do. But I’ve been holding onto my virginity like it’s a bargaining chip. It’s not worth anything if I’m spending my life alone. I was always told not to settle, but I’m twenty-fourand alone. Sure, I didn’t settle but it came at the cost of not experiencing a real relationship at all. I don’t want to be twenty-five and alone, so I’m willing to cash my chip in for the greater good. I want him to find me irresistible.”
Her sadness seeps into me, hitting my heart. This is what men have done to her. “We’re fucking jerks, Virginia. If they don’t find value in you, you’ve got to find it in yourself.”
“I’m not blind. I know on the outside I’m not the same girl in that photo, but on the inside, I’m still unsteady with this.”
Eyeing her, admiring those perky tits she’s so determined to unflatter under her business clothes. “So you hide it?”
She slides to the side, facing me while bending her leg in front of her. “I can tell you don’t like the suits, but that’s what is expected of me at work. There’s a dress code.”
“Let me ask you something. This Lowry guy, has he hooked up with women in the office?”
“Yes,” she says with an added nod.
“What are they wearing?”
“Oh God,” she starts, an eye roll punctuating her feelings on the topic. “I don’t even know how they walk in those skirts. They’re so tight and their heels are ridiculously high.”
“Two things—you said they as in plural. So he’s fucking or has fucked several women in your office?”
She just nods this time. “Flirts with them, but not slept with any or at least the rumors say he hasn’t.”
“Secondly, why can they dress like that and you can’t?”
“I’m in a different department. I’m the only woman in that department with six men. We wear suits.”
“But it’s not in the dress code officially.” Narrowing my eyes as I follow my own breadcrumbs to my final point. “You’re choosing to fit in with the men.” Totally judging, I look at her with my lips off to the side.
I think she’s starting to follow my thinking. She smiles and sighs. “I see what you’re saying. It’s me, not them. And not Lowry.”
“Do you have a game plan? Are you just gonna show up to work one morning and jump him in the elevator or what?”
“New Year’s Eve. Our company throws a holiday party on New Year’s at the Waldorf-Astoria.”
I feel sick to my stomach. “You want to kiss him at midnight on New Year’s?”
Her excitement grows. “No, I want to seduce him at midnight on New Year’s. Any advice?”
She’s doing this no matter what I say, so I give her honesty. “You have the power to get his attention, even though I still don’t know why you want it. The bottom line is, you’re not using your gifts.”
“And by gifts, you mean?”
